Baggage Reclaim and Customs with Connecting flights in Paris CDG

Start by figuring out arrival terminal and departure terminal:
http://easycdg.com/airport-guide/which-terminal-information-paris-cdg-airport-charlesdegaulle/
Delta: Terminal 2E
Terminal map: https://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/docs/default-source/passager-fichiers/acces/plan-t2e.pdf

First Immigration (passport control), then pick up the bags up from the luggage carousel, then exit through the green door marked "Nothing to Declare", which is customs. While waiting for your bags, pick up a couple of the free luggage carts to load your stuff on. After customs, you can track down where the City Jet desk is, with your luggage comfortably on the carts.
Edit-Google search just showed City Jet 1716 flight from CDG 2E to Dublin at 10:15 am.

Sam has laid it out pretty well. You have a lot of luggage but that is what three kids generate so find those carts. Immigration will be the big hold up, customs in Europe is nothing. Just a wave. But there is a complication. Since you are headed to Dublin you should be in-transit but it doesn't sound like you will be able to stay behind immigration. That means you will go through immigration to enter the Schengen zone and then exit to go to Dublin. You may have a second layer of immigration to deal with. What is your arrival time in Paris? Also you mostly likely will have to go to the front of the airport to checkin and dump your luggage with City Jet since I assume these are two separate tickets.

Since I am not familiar with City Jet, I did a little research.
1. They do not fly from CDG, but from Orly (ORY).
2. They do appear to code share with Air France, and Air France has a flight 1716 to Dublin at 10:15 (AF 1716).
3. If you are indeed flying to Dublin, and Delta and Air France are partners, why are you not checking the bags through to Dublin. That would save a great deal of time and bother.

Sam, Frank and Edgar have you covered on the transit but I just wanted to chime in on your volume of stuff. I know children create a lot of baggage but is there any way to bring down that list? You're going to be just overloaded. How old are your kids? Does each person really need an entire checked bag of stuff? Maybe you could pack two of your kids' clothing into one bag. How long are you going to be gone on your trip? Perhaps you could just bring 2 or 3 large checked bags and the kids could share. Limiting your packing is something a lot of us preach on this website and it really makes for easier travels. You really do need less than you think.

As to the car seats, are you renting a car and driving around Ireland? I know when my child was little, there was a product you could buy that was a fabric/strap car seat for airplanes and they were tiny. Of course, you'd need your big car seats if you're driving around, but in case you're not...

Thanks for the replies!!

We, thankfully, land in Paris at around 8am and connect at 1300 so we have time to get where we're going. We're flying Delta and the Dublin leg is operated by City Jet for Delta.

A few christmasses ago we did the same trip with way less time and only two kids and that was a nightmare so we're anticipating some lunacy.

I remember getting all the way to security only to be told that we needed to be reticketed a few floors down because of the Delta boarding passes and waiting in line for that almost cost us our connection on top of the lines again back at security the second time around.

While we'll have time to grab carts to put the bags on, there's a limited number of limbs to push two strollers and also a luggage cart or two and so wondered how far we'll have to trek with the luggage carts and strollers etc. before we check the luggage back in and be a bit more freed up. The maps of the airport are great, thanks for those, I'm not remembering how far we trekked with reclaimed luggage, possibly because I've blocked the horrific experience from memory :)

@Sam

We are checking the bags through to Dublin but as we hit customs in Paris (as the entry point to the EU for us) we have to reclaim our bags and parade them past customs before rechecking them. Delta told us that today :(

@Valerie
I 100% agree with you on the less luggage is more but in this case we are relocating to Ireland from the U.S. and so will be taking a lot of stuff with us, otherwise I would entirely pack all three kids stuff into one bag :)

We are checking the bags through to Dublin but as we hit customs in
Paris (as the entry point to the EU for us) we have to reclaim our
bags and parade them past customs before rechecking them. Delta told
us that today :(

I am going to be pretty bold here (looking for support) and say that Delta is wrong. If you bags are check through to Dublin on code sharing then you will not go through customs in Paris. EU is the economic union and has nothing to do with the Schengen zone/travel. You might even be able to stay behind immigration as an intransit passenger since both gates are in the same terminal if above info is correct. It is only in the US that I have seen picking up your bags, walking through customs and then returning to a conveyor belt. What you are saying is not consistent with my experience. But I could be wrong. Good luck.

I can't stop envisioning your luggage carts, piled high, and the kids after a 10 hour flight! I might keel over in the airport with all of that. But, obviously, moving to Ireland is a whole other matter. Thoughts I had:
-Are you shipping the bulk of your stuff? Maybe you could make do with the stuff in 3 suitcases instead of 5 until your stuff arrives.
-Do you have any little ones over 4yr/40 pounds? You could put those ones in inflatable "BubbleBum" car seats. They're tiny and would save you a lot of room on the luggage cart. Once you're settled you can get the bigger car seats you're used to. I remember hating traveling with the bulky carseats and we only had one.

I'm with Frank here. Delta should check your bags to Dublin, since it is one itinerary.
Not exactly the same, but last year, flew to Germany via Dublin and our bags were checked to Germany and that is the next place we saw them. On return, even though we were spending a night in Dublin, the gate agent gave us the option of checking them through stateside or collecting them in Dublin and even mix and match. We had tax rebates coming on goodies, we had to turn them in at Dublin airport, since that is where we exiting the EU.

Thank you all,

I so so hope you are all right, I don't remember if we collected bags the last time we flew this route and was horrified when Delta told us that so maybe the agent I spoke to was incorrect about that, it would certainly be a load off if he was.

I will update this thread once we get to Ireland and let you know, since yesterday I spoke to Delta again and they have reserved a 'Meet and assist' for us in Paris, which is a service they offer free of charge. The service isn't guaranteed but they request it and have told us to say it when we check in at SEA and again when we disembark in Paris.

If it comes through, that will at least help us get from A to B with an extra hand!

Thank you all again so much, I'll keep you posted!

Lynda

Lynda, I agree with the above, if you have this as one through ticket, your bags will be checked through to Dublin. EU-internal baggage has a special type of luggage label (green strip down the side), so customs can tell at a glance which is EU-internal baggage, and which is external. But it won't make much difference, at Dublin the passengers from France will go through the blue EU exit (no customs) and you will go through the green "nothing to declare" exit.

Ireland is not in Schengen, so there is passport checks between France an Ireland. But, with a bit of luck, you will say "airside" in Paris, and only go through passport control in Dublin.
Passport control is always before you pick up your bags. It would be impractical to have people with lots of bags and trolleys going through passport control, and instead of waiting for your bags and then waiting for passport control, by the time you are through passport control they have had time to load your bags onto the carousel.

Hi All,

A follow-up on this, some weeks later, but I wanted to confirm that we did not need to collect our bags in Paris, they went straight through to Dublin from Seattle.

We were definitely grateful for that with everything else we were carrying :)

Thanks again for all the comments and help!

Happy Traveling!

Thanks for the update, LyndaN